Cash-poor forces looks to drones: Coastline patrols - National Post

[Spr.Earl]

Taken from the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3457601.stm


Australia to buy drone squadron

Australia has unveiled plans to spend up to A$1 billion ($760 million) on unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said the money had been set aside to buy the drones under the new Defence Capability Plan (DCP) 2004-2014


He said the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq had proved the value of the drones for battlefield surveillance.

Under the DCP, Australia is set to spend a total of $38bn, continuing a steady upward trend in defence funding.


Mr Hill said the DCP - the result of a 12-month review of the armed forces - also envisaged:
replacing the army‘s 40-year-old Leopard tanks with the LATEST German Leopard, the US Abraham or the British Challenger 2 acquiring three new destroyers and two new landing vessels; upgrading the air force‘s F/A-18 Hornet fighter planes and acquiring a new airborne early warning and control aircraft

The defence plan did not make specific provisions for Australia‘s participation in the controversial US missile defence shield project, but Mr Hill said Canberra was "committed to the concept".

"The global situation has also brought our responsibilities, as an alliance partner of the United States, into sharper focus," he said.

Australia - which recently has seen an unprecedented level of its troops deployments oversees - was one the staunchest allies of the US-led war in Iraq last year.

Capacity boost

The DCP makes a six-fold increase in funding for a squadron of US-made Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which would patrol Australia‘s borders and could be used further afield.


Australia says it is committed to the US missile defence shield

"The success of the aircraft such as Global Hawk in operations over both Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated the huge capacity boost these assets can bring," Mr Hill said.

"You can put an unmanned vehicle up that can travel for up to 24 hours over a huge distance, you can basically have a continual surveillance capability with a squadron," he said.

Mr Hill added that the drones "would also be able to assist with civil tasks such as bush fire detection and response".

No prime contractors for the new aircraft had been identified in the DCP, but the plan envisaged to have the drones operational between 2009-2011.

 

[Jason Jarvis]

It looks like the Aussies aren‘t the only ones looking to replace P-3s with UAVs. While I can‘t say that I like this idea -- UAVs can‘t drop survival gear -- if it frees up more money for the army then I‘m all for it.

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Cash-poor forces looks to drones: Coastline patrols: ‘It‘s like standing on a big mountaintop and looking down‘

By Chris Wattie
National Post, February 5, 2004

The Canadian Forces announced yesterday it will hold trials of a new unmanned spy plane over the Arctic and the Atlantic, the first step in a plan that could see a fleet of drones patrolling Canada‘s long and largely undefended coastline.

The US$1.9-million contract is only a test of the Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), but eventually the Canadian Forces hope to have squadrons of the spy planes to keep a closer eye on our borders.

"It is cool stuff," said Major James Simiana, a spokesman for the military‘s ALIX program -- short for the Atlantic Littoral Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance Experiment. "Experiment is the key word here ... but that is the potential, the prospect that‘s under consideration."

The test will use long-range Predator drones, up-sized versions of the aircraft used by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq, to sweep thousands of square kilometres of Canadian oceans and coasts during their 36-hour flights. Cruising as high as 45,000 feet, the unmanned craft feature radar, infrared and video cameras capable of spotting a small boat hundreds of kilometres away.

The drones would all be controlled by operators sitting comfortably in an office somewhere in Ottawa.

"What it boils down to is better intelligence," Maj. Simiana said. "And providing that information in a very, very timely fashion back to higher headquarters. It certainly is an intriguing program."

Images from cameras mounted in the planes‘ bulbous nose cones can be beamed straight into the offices of Canadian Forces‘ generals in National Defence Headquarters or even to the Prime Minister‘s Office.

The tests will involve three flights, likely taking off from an air force base at Goose Bay, Labrador: One over Baffin Island; another over New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy; and a third far out at sea over the Grand Banks off Newfoundland.

Maj. Simiana said the experiment will involve all three services, other government departments and the U.S. Coast Guard.

"It‘s not just for the Canadian Forces," he said. "This is information that‘s going to be available to a lot of different departments ... to tell them what‘s happening in Canadian territory."

John Goldtrap, a spokesman for General Atomics of San Diego, Calif., said his company‘s craft is no model airplane.

"This is not a toy: it is a big airplane and it has to be treated as such, he said. "It will fly side-by-side with passenger airliners at 40,000 feet, in fact we can go higher than the airliners can."

The version of the Predator being tested by the Canadian Forces this summer -- known as the Altair -- has an 86-foot wingspan, for longer flights, and enough power to carry up to 1,500 kilograms of cameras and electronics.

"It will be able to survey the maritime environment for ships, airplanes -- whatever the Canadian Forces wants to look at. This is a very capable aircraft," Mr. Goldtrap said.

"It‘s like standing on a big mountaintop and looking down ... we‘ve got the sensors to spot a 20-foot boat or even a 10-foot boat."

He said control of the drone can be switched from Ottawa to another land base, or even to a ship or manned aircraft, at the push of a button.

"You can control both the aircraft and the payload from almost anywhere in the world," he said. "We can have either manual control 100% of the time or what we call ... point and click, where you put the mouse where you want the aircraft to go on the map."

A "stripped-down" Altair costs up to US$5-million and its high-tech cameras and radar can cost another US$2-million to US$3-million. But that is just a fraction of the cost of a full-sized military aircraft, Mr. Goldtrap said.

"The Coast Guard, the office of Homeland Security in the U.S. are realizing, as I think many people in the Canadian government are, that these UAVs are a good supplement to coastal surveillance. They can cover a wide area very quickly."

Richard Gimblett, a former Canadian navy officer who is now a research fellow with Dalhousie University‘s Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, said the Canadian military may have no choice but to use spy planes to watch its coasts.

"The air force, right now, cannot supply the navy with enough flying time," he said. "They‘re short of aircrew and aircraft ... and can‘t afford the cost per hour of flying enough patrol missions."

Dr. Gimblett said the air force‘s CP-140 Aurora patrol planes are in particularly short supply at the moment because they are in the midst of an upgrade to improve their airborne electronics. "They can‘t provide the surveillance that is required, on either coast."

A Defence Department advisory panel has already recommended the Canadian Forces focus on domestic security, including coastal surveillance.

The Defence Science Advisory Board said in a report prepared last May that "DND/CF should shift their focus from offshore to Canadian defence needs at home," and recommended putting new emphasis on monitoring Canadian coastlines, including the Arctic.

Dr. Gimblett said drones are a cost-effective way to get the most out of limited naval ships and aircraft, identifying suspicious vessels or planes entering Canadian waters for a navy or Coast Guard vessel or plane to investigate further.

"UAVs are a cheap and easy way to do that -- they can cover a wide swath of territory," he said. "It makes a whole lot of sense."

 

[Danny]

Sounds good.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Jason if a Pedator can carry 1 or 2 Hellfires why could it not carry survival gear of some sort?

 

[dano]

It is a good substitute. But, I‘ am afraid that the CF will grow dependent on it.

"If you want something done right, you got to do it you‘re self"

And frankly if we have drones patrolling out waters, they are open to foreign manipulation.

There are situations where human problem solving and timing is crucial.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Dano I have yet to hear of a UAV being hacked and taken over have you heard otherwise?

Drones/UAVs what have you are also the way of the future of course we will become dependant on them...to not to utilise them means we wil be left behind even farther.

 

[dano]

There is nothing. No one. Stopping a capable person(s)/organization(s) from trying to hack a UAV.

If someone wanted to break in to you‘re home, they are going to get what ever they want, no matter if you have security systems and bard up windows. If they want it bad enough, they will take it.

It is just impossible to think that you can‘t hack one. It is going to happen. It will happen. Internationally or domestically. It will happen.
So, if we have a fleet of those UAVs out there, one gets compromised. What is stopping that person/organization to compromise them all, and use them for their goals.

Yes. You see, it is the future. Universal soldiers. the chat on putting weapons in space.
Making work easier shouldn't be a bad thing.
But when you use technology to completely do the job for you, or at least a significant 50%, what is stopping organizations to utilize that technology and use it against us?

 

[Jungle]

Dano, we have to do what is called "risk management". If the advantages outweigh the risks, then we should do it. I can‘t see a UAV take any action on a situation, but I can see a pair of CF-18s being dispatched to do so after the UAV has spotted something.
A growing number of countries are using UAVs, and I have not heard of one being hacked... it may happen, but what are the chances ???
Finally, if somebody wants to break into my house, they better make sure I am not there !!!

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

From what I understand of UAVs its not an omni directional signal but a tight bandwidth from and to the UAV and control station, how do you hack that?

 

[JasonH]

Man... Filled with eny, now if only our government would up our budget by a good 50 billion too lol